As you know, we’ve had a few technical difficulties with our widgets recently, and @TinyPearlCat and I have been trying hard to sort them out. Perhaps we tried a little too hard, because with the best of intentions we accidentally set up two of them this month!

We thought we’d put that right by simply publishing one of them and leaving the other live on the YouCaring site because it had some test donations in it which we wanted to get safely to the charity when the appeal closes.

However, this is NipClub, where the unexpected always happens. It seems that due to both widgets having the same PayPal address the YouCaring site can’t always differentiate between them, so has credited some money to the one we didn’t publish. And, of course, if we just cancel one of them the same thing could maybe happen again, and it’s going to look extremely suspicious if the larger one disappears and people wonder why the widget total has gone down!

We’ve therefore gone ahead and published the unofficial widget, too, so that everyone can see that everything’s above board, so if you make a donation and the widget hasn’t moved please scroll down to the second widget, click on its graphic, and on the next page click on the Supporters tab and you should see your donation there.

Yes, it makes us look kinda silly, but at least it shows we’re giving credit for every donation that we get, and we’d way rather look silly than give anyone the impression that anything improper is happening with your donations.

We believe we’ve solved the earlier problems, so paws crossed next month we’ll have a widget that works properly. Reliably. Accurately. Without arguing with anyone. And on its own.

Posted onApril 13, 2014|Comments Off on Urgent Info For All Grooveshark Users

In the groove – but make sure you have the latest version of Flash Player!

A lot of the music NipClub DJs play you comes from music-streaming service Grooveshark. It’s a great source of music of all genres, and gives a vast amount of entertainment to a lot of users. Sadly, it’s now come to light that it’s been giving some of them something else as well – data-seeking malware.

The problem is a vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player, which Grooveshark works through and which has been allowing infected ads to download bad stuff. Adobe is aware and has produced a patch to deal with it, so before you click on any Grooveshark links, or links from TinySong.com, which all resolve to Grooveshark, please go to Adobe.com and make sure you have the latest version of Flash Player.

The site will check your Flash Player and tell you if you have the new one, and if not it will walk you through the update. It doesn’t take long, and it will make your music-listening experience much safer.

If your virus-checker hasn’t alerted you to an attempt to download something unauthorized your computer probably hasn’t been infected, but it wouldn’t hurt to run a scan anyway to make sure. Also, if you know others who use Grooveshark or any other Flash Player based web service you’ll be doing them a favor if you make sure they know about the need to update Flash Player urgently.

You are probably aware of the devastating mud-slide that hit the little town of Oso,Washington on Saturday. So far 25 people are known to have died, but that figure is expected to rise dramatically as rescuers reach bodies buried in the mud. Many more are injured, and 90 are still unaccounted for. The scene has been described as looking like the surface of the moon.

Naturally, most rescue efforts are concentrated on finding humans, but inevitably there are other casualties too. Many pets and other animals will have been killed, injured, traumatized or simply will have fled. Oso is a farming area, and in addition to companion animals there are working, farm, stray and feral animals involved.

Local rescue services are overwhelmed by the influx of bewildered, hungry, scared and possibly injured animals, and owners are desperately searching for news of them.

That’s why for once we’re breaking our usual rule of not allowing the #NipClub hashtag to be used to appeal for any other causes. This is a major emergency affecting many animals, and it is obviously right for us to respond as best we can.

The flag still flies: one wrecked home in Oso, Washington (pic by independent.co.uk)

We are not, at the moment, asking you for money. We’re looking into whether there’s a way that we can perhaps help financially at a later date. The sheer size of this disaster means that help is likely to be needed for a long time to come, so we’re not asking you to divert donations from this month’s charity, Rocky Mountain Great Dane Rescue.

What we would like you to do, please, is to send a tweet on the timeline during #NipClub tonight telling people where they can report a missing or found animal. The suggested tweet below is from NipClub Entertainment Manager @mattiedog, who lives in the area and whose Momma has been helping with the rescue work. You’re welcome to put it in your own words or tweet it as it is – all that matters is to get the word out. The tweet is…